Since ancient times, magic has been the stuff of legend and lore within human culture. Found in one form or another in almost every culture, magic brings to mind the invocation and conjuration of the humanly impossible. From ancient tribes where shamans and priests were mystical spiritual leaders thought to have supernatural powers, to modern day illusionists like David Copperfield and Chris Angel, to fictitious literary and movie characters, people have always been fascinated by the abilities or perceived abilities of these masters of the mystic.
A common thread that can be recognized through almost all examples of magic, ancient or modern, is the showmanship that goes hand-in-hand with the spell-caster at work. Whether it is a ritual dance or movements or the waving of hands or a wand, whenever society portrays magic, it is almost always accompanied by some form of gesture.
In the Lord of The Rings movies, we see Gandalf wielding a staff to bring magic to bear against his enemies. In Disney's animated The Sword in the Stone, Merlin is constantly waving his wand about and wreaking all sorts of magical havoc. Even in the Star Wars movies, Jedi, masters of a mystic force surrounding all things, gesture with their hands to move objects and create lightning. One common thread these magic castings share is the use of gesture based spell “summoning.” Such gestures help add to the sense that the caster is actually controlling the magic.
Magic, magic spells, and magic systems also play a role in many different video games. From role-playing games (RPGs) to battle-type games, numerous player-controlled characters, enemies, and game-controlled characters (NPCs) wield magic in the form of spells, magic items, and magical abilities.
For example, in a traditional role playing game (RPG), the game character may have the ability to cast spells. To instruct this ability's use, the player may press a key that corresponds to the desired spell. Alternatively, the player may be provided with a list of available spells, and then may use a directional pad or other control element to parse through the list and select a desired spell. Either way, in many RPGs, the spell casting often involves little more than a selection or depression of a single key to trigger a spell.
An alternative form of casting magic spells or using magic abilities is often found in battle-type games, where players engage the computer or other players in one-on-one combat. Typically, in these games, it is not desirable to pause play while a spell is cast or an ability is used, since both sides are actively trying to attack each other as quickly as possible. If game play were paused every time a player used a character ability, this genre's fast-paced, adrenaline pumping aspect would all but vanish.
Due to a desire not to freeze the game while a player selects a desired spell or skill, game developers instead have linked all of the skills and spells to a series of input commands. For example, to shoot a fireball, a player might rotate a directional pad in a half-circle, then sequentially press one or more buttons. If performed successfully, the fireball effect is generated. If performed unsuccessfully, there is no fireball. This allows the game play to continue as spells and abilities are used.
In these types of games, the player often creates a magic effect through use of buttons, joysticks and other controls provided on a controller.
With the advent of video game systems provided with motion sensing controllers, players have an opportunity to immerse themselves in wholly new aspects of their favorite game genres. From swinging a sword (by swinging a controller) to throwing a punch (by punching with a hand holding a controller), lovers of role playing and battle-type games alike can now more fully suspend reality and pretend they are immersed within the game. But, while swinging a sword and throwing a punch are “real” based motions, there is likely no known “standard” motion for calling a lightning storm down on your foes. The exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementations herein, provide a magic invoking system that allows a player to experience some of these more fantastic game aspects.
An exemplary game is presented herein purely for exemplary purposes, and is not intended to limit the invention in any way. Magic in this exemplary game is associated with nature, the spirit world, and life and death energies. The spells used in the exemplary game play on medieval sensibilities and superstitions about how the world works and the forces that drive it.
Heroes use magic to sway the course of a battle, not just as another weapon. Their spells are mostly large scale events which hinder the enemy or give the caster's own forces an advantage. Heroes could alternatively be given smaller scale, more personal spells, or a combination of both.
In this exemplary implementation, each faction which represents a “side,” has a handful of spells which its heroes can use, and it may only be possible to cast the most powerful of these spells once or twice during the course of a typical mission. The focus is on using the right spell at the right time to turn the tide of the battle in your army's favor, rather than directly attacking a specific unit. Any other suitable implementation of a magic system could also be provided. For example, heroes could use numerous spells against individual foes almost perpetually throughout the game.
According to one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, players can activate a magic mode within a game and select a spell to cast. Then, in this exemplary implementation, a series of one or more symbols is displayed on the screen. These symbols indicate patterns that the player, using the motion sensitive controller, is to replicate.
In this exemplary implementation, the symbols are displayed one at a time, and the player either succeeds or fails in the implementation. Failure does not end the sequence. Rather, the next symbol is displayed. Once all symbols have been displayed and attempted, the corresponding spell is cast.
According to this exemplary implementation, the spell is altered based on player successes and failures during input. Additionally, while the player is provided with a limited time during which to enter a symbol, a fast player can complete the symbol before the time expires, and this may also add power to the spell.
Spells can also consist of single symbols, as opposed to a series of symbols, as simple as a single line and as complicated as a designer's imagination. Further, all of the symbols for a spell sequence could be displayed at the same time, or the next symbol could be displayed with the present one, etc. And, spells could fail upon failing a single gesture, or gesture failure could result in other penalties, such as increased magic cost to cast a spell, etc. Massive failure could even cause a spell to backfire on the player. Numerous variations of the magic invoking system presented herein are possible, and all are contemplated to be within the scope of the present invention. For example, players could also be instructed by a series of directional arrows, showing them in which general directions to move a controller.
In another exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the player is provided with several different schools of magic from which to choose spells. In this exemplary implementation, all of the spells from a similar school share certain characteristics. For example, air/weather spells may often have swirly gestures associated therewith, reminiscent of air currents. Spells from a school closely associated with technology may all have aspects of or actually be mathematical symbols. Alternatively, each spell may be wholly unique, or share no intended characteristics with other spells (although it is likely that many spells will incidentally share characteristics, regardless of developer intention).
In the exemplary illustrative game presented herein, players are provided with a variety of Factions from which to choose. The various exemplary Factions match up with different Schools of Magic as follows:
FactionMagicArklandWeatherReusmenAnimalGuardian EmpireScienceMalbettDeathIn the disclosed example, each Faction's selection of spells is related to their cultural traits. For example, Arklanders have an affinity to the weather, so their spells are all based around controlling the weather.
According to one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation, the player is provided with two motion sensitive controllers, one for each hand. In this exemplary implementation, when a symbol is displayed, it may actually show two patterns, one to be performed with each handheld controller. These patterns could be the same pattern, they could be mirror images of one another, or they could be completely unrelated.
Since it is likely easier to draw two straight line simultaneously than it is to draw a square with one hand while drawing a spiral with another, the more disjoint the connection between the symbols the more powerful the spell may be. Spell power can also be unrelated to the difficulty in casting the spell. For example, certain difficult spells may not be powerful at all, but useful in certain situations, so the player must simply master the difficult spell to successfully overcome an obstacle.
Because the symbols can often contain overlapping lines, in one exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation a moving guide is provided to show the player where to move the controller. The guide begins at a start position, and moves along the path of the symbol. The player can then make a motion similar to the path of the guide. Alternatively, the guide can mirror the player's movement, or several guides can be provided, one showing the path, and one mirroring the movement. Or, if it is desired to make the casting more difficult, the guide can be left out of the system.
Another aspect of an exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementation is a magic reservoir associated with a game character. In this exemplary implementation, a spell requires a certain amount of power to cast. As each gesture is attempted, a fraction of the cost of the spell is depleted from the magic reservoir. According to this exemplary implementation, the spell can be aborted by the player at any point, but any magic used prior to the abort is forfeited. Players could also suffer different penalties for aborting a spell, or be prohibited from quitting the spell once started. In this exemplary implementation, an equal fraction of the cost is deducted each time, but the power deduction can be done by any suitable means. It could be random, it could be increasing over time, it could be half while casting and half upon actual cast, etc.
Additional aspects of exemplary illustrative non-limiting implementations include:                Slowed time while a player is casting a spell                    Not only animation slows, but also associated audio may slow                        Spell selection overlay once a player enters a mode for casting magic        Spell gestures generally form a pictogram emblematic of the spell being cast        Gathering magic energy represented in the form of some faction related animation—e.g. weather spell-caster may have clouds and lightning gathering around him as he prepares to cast        Different casting animations for successful and unsuccessful gesture completion        Targeting of spells upon completion of casting        Indicia of success and failure                    Visual, audible, tactile, etc.                        Different animations for different levels of spell success        Scaled feedback based on strength of spell—e.g. a poorly cast hurricane might have a soft sound, small controller vibration, etc, while a well cast one might have a howling sound and cause the controller to vibrate furiously.        